Dalit Freedom Network UK arranged for Scottish artist, Lou Prendergast, to work with Dalit women in India. Lou's Eyecaste project is all about seeing beyond caste. The trip had two aims. The first was to increase a sense of dignity and self-worth through community-based art workshops among Dalit women from vulnerable situations. The second was to exhibit the women’s artwork here in the UK to raise awareness of the issues Dalit women face. DFN is looking for funding to mount such an exhibition. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from an article written by Lou describing the workshops among one group of women.

We’re coursing towards a slum in Andhra Pradesh, southern India, where seventeen poverty-stricken families have set up home in the discarded concrete pipes of the near-by pipe factory. I’m on a self-initiated art project. If this all goes wrong, I’ve only myself to blame.

I’ve seen images of this place. And I have a dream. I want the villagers to paint these pipes, to transform the drab tones of this shabby settlement with colours as vivid as monsoon insects. But who cares what I want?

Suddenly, the high ideals I left Scotland with, of instilling confidence, raising self-esteem and restoring dignity in oppressed women, seem incredulous. Surveying this derelict-looking scene of concrete curves, corrugated iron and trouser-less children, it’s my confidence that’s crashing.

Read the rest of Lou's article on the next page.